


Flesh & Bone

by awe_full



Category: Flesh & Bone
Genre: Angst, How Do I Tag, Original Characters - Freeform, Original work - Freeform, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, soooooo much angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-03-06 03:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18842641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awe_full/pseuds/awe_full
Summary: After the government released a disease meant to narrow down the population, and kill everyone who didn't have AB+ blood, only about four percent of the world was left. It got worse however, when a new outbreak occurred, turning people into the equivalent of a zombie.Ethan Mullins was barely coping with the loss of his family, but he was forced to shut those negative emotions away, in order to survive. Along the way, he meets a girl with anger management issues, a girl who wears overalls, and one who is just a little to emotional.Even High School was better than this.





	1. The Fall

The cracks of the shotgun shook her body, jerking her shoulder with all the ricochets. Their eyes were clouded, forehead covered in sweat, dirt, and a mixture of grime. 

She was shooting at anything that moved, It was too risky to try to save anything, or anyone since the Infection. 

Wiping out everyone, except those with AB+ blood. Leaving only 4% of the world left, humans turned on each other, blind to what had once brought them together. In the current world, it was kill or be killed.

With the new impulse to kill, it was discovered that the newest illness had set in. The Infected, people who were stripped of everything that had made them human, leaving nothing but the body, and the brain of a thing with only one priority. To kill. 

Tori wasn’t sure how many she had shot down by this point, only that her gun barrel wasn’t firing anything out anymore. Empty. 

Swearing under her breath, she quickly turned the safety on, so she wouldn’t shoot her foot on accident, again. 

Before she could turn, however, she felt a prick in her neck. Her head was weighed down, and her eyes lazily blinked.

“Who-” Her feet stumbled, and she fell to the ground, looking up and catching a glimpse of platinum hair before falling unconscious.

 

\-------

 

Ethan pulled the poker out of the squirrel’s body, ignoring the resounding squelch, and instead using his time to muffle curses under his breath and turn to survey the damage. The pavement in front of the corner store was littered with animal carcasses, accompanied by puddles of blood, mud, and...other substances. 

He hiked up the pale blue backpack, dirtied with the months of harsh treatment, and began the hike back to his house. Obviously, it wasn’t exactly his house. It was an abandoned hotel, that was one or two streets over from his old house. It was made from cream coloured brick, and wilted flowers covered the front lawn. On the inside, it wasn't much better. The yellow paint was cracked, and chipped away in all the corners, leaving drywall on display for other survivors to break, and scratch at. The elevator was broken as well, so, to make the best out of a bad situation, he converted it into a storage room of sorts. 

It was filled with various goods he had found around town, fire axes and extinguishers from the schools, painkillers and vitamins from supermarkets, and makeshift weapons from construction stores and fishing shops. 

He kept a few things on him at all times though. His front jean pockets were filled with packages of throat lozenges and Ibuprofen, and his backpack was filled with things like knives, trail mix packages, and bullets. 

Sighing, he unzipped his bag and began rifling through its contents, he wanted to cook the squirrels he collected before the ‘dead animal’ smell stunk up the whole building, not to mention, it would lead countless infected straight to him…

Lost in thought, he didn’t hear the screams. The gunfire brought him out of his train of thought, and without thinking about the consequences, he sprinted out the door with nothing but the fire poker. Leaving the doors wide open.

When he arrived, well, he could proudly say that this was the weirdest stand down he had ever seen. 

Two girls, both near his age if not exactly, stood on two opposite sides of a baseball diamond. The first one he saw, wore what looked like a motorcycle helmet, looked every part of a gangster that you’d see in movies. If gangsters were of course, what looked like five feet. 

They had a metal baseball bat strapped across their back, as well as two handguns. Both firing at the trees opposite to them. Next to them on the ground, was a set of what looked to be kitchen knives. They were good condition, totaling to about seven or eight, and all had blood on them. Looking closer, there were countless slashes along the jacket, each steadily flowing onto their navy jeans. The one wearing a helmet was most likely a girl, especially considering their body was certainly...petite. The other participant in the ‘standoff’ however, was very clearly a girl. They were wearing a lilac sweater, underneath a pair of what most likely used to be denim overalls. However, the denim was worn, and faded, and covered in blood. It did still have some colour though, a pale blue, which means it was probably bleached a few times in order to try to get the blood out.

They were crouched behind a tree, very close to being shot, and kept screaming about knives. They probably belong to her. His mind pointed out. 

He frowned, the fight certainly seemed unfair. Not that one was weaker than the other, but the gangster had more, weapon wise, at least. Making his decision, he raised the poker and, balancing his weight on his right leg, flung it towards the one with the handguns. 

The poker landed with a sickening crunch in their left shoulder, and they crumpled to the ground, letting go of whatever leverage they might have had. 

The one wearing overalls immediately sprinted over, and begun piling the kitchen knives into a plain black backpack she had carried over with her. 

Ethan sprinted over as well, to talk to the girl, and to take back his fire poker. 

“Wait! Come ba-” he was silenced by a cleaver that narrowly missed his shoulder.

Reversing to grab the cleaver, he began to walk back to the girl wearing overalls, who was hanging by the other girl, arms crossed, a knife in each hand. 

He was panting slightly, his hands on his knees, before he looked up to face her.

“I just want to talk, do you know who this is?”

The girl narrowed her eyes, but she shook her head nonetheless. It wasn’t that she couldn’t talk, he had heard her, it was more like she wouldn’t. 

He sighed and lent down to inspect the girl on the ground. He leaned down to take out the poker but stopped. Something about this whole situation was telling him to keep her alive. Shaking his head, he began to slowly slide the helmet off and held his breath. 

Eyes widening, he set down with the helmet and soaked in her face.He knew her. He knew he did! So why is the only thought coming to his mind fuzzy, and disassembled? 

 

After the most one sided conversation Ethan had ever had, him and the girl, ‘Tori’ she had said (although that was all she had said) had come to an agreement. They would head back to the hotel with the still unnamed one in the helmet, who they had named Hel, for ‘Helmet’, and create a plan to move forward. 

Although the conversation was mostly one-sided, he had learned quite a lot about Tori. She went to high school in Guelph, and had come back to visit her father, a few days before the infection had started. She had stayed to look after her siblings when her dad had died and, after a few weeks, she was the only one left. 

He sympathized with her, but he didn’t say anything. His younger sister Eva, had been the first in his family to get the sickness. His family wasn’t poor by any means, and they had immediately put her in the nicest hospital in the city with the most experienced doctors. However, that didn’t matter much, as she had died within the month, and his parents soon after. 

The only part of his family he had left was a scraggly Border Collie that stopped by the hotel once every few days, he assumed someone was looking after it, as it didn’t look hungry at all. Shrugging himself out of his thoughts he turned over to see Tori struggling to lift up Hel. He walked over, mouth curved in a frown and lent down to help. As he did, He brushed against Tori, and she recoiled as if she’d been shot. His eyes widened, and an apology was on the tip of his tongue, but before he could apologize, Hel began to stir. 

They both immediately backed away, and he saw Tori tighten her grip on one of her knives in his peripheral, looking back at Hel, he saw pale hands move to life the helmet that was off her head, only to discover it wasn’t there. Ethan, paused, he had taken the helmet off and had placed it next to her, she wouldn’t be upset right?

She slowly sat up and swept her gaze left to right, before settling on the knife in Tori’s hand. She struggled to her feet, keeping her eyes on the blade the whole time, before she gave a tired smile.

“I don’t suppose you abide by ‘Finders keepers, do you?” 

Tori scowled and raised her chin. “Finders Keepers? I was holding them!” 

Hel stuck her tongue out before turning “Are you on the same side as the preschooler?” 

He scratched his neck before hesitantly answering. “I don’t really know her any better than you.” 

She narrowed her eyes and took a step closer to him, disregarding the warning look Tori sent her way. She examined him for a moment before stepping back and shrugging. 

“If you say so.” 

Hearing a rustle in the trees Ethan turned to take his flashlight out of his bag, only to remember he left this backpack at the hotel. With the door open.

He tensed, he couldn’t leave the others here, they would surely kill each other. But is he willing to show them both where he’s been staying for the past eight months?

He had to make a decision, someone could already be taking his stuff right now, but these stranger might do the same. Without thinking anymore, Ethan ran.


	2. The Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan shows the two girls where he's been staying, only to find the place in shambles. He feels like he's going to cry. 
> 
> This sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any typos!

He lunged forward and gripped Tori by the arm, before turning and reaching for Hel’s hand as well. She hesitated before seeing the worried look in his eyes. She acquiesced her hand to his grip, and limped along with them.

He sprinted through the bushes which had been rustling a few moments earlier, and emerged in a run-down parking lot behind a restaurant named Pizza Palace. He rolled his eyes at the glow-up chef next to the sign, throwing up a neon pizza. 

They raced through an apartment complex until they reached the roof. Tori had taken the lead a few minutes ago, she apparently knew the layout well, and had led them to the ledge. She looked at him, a gaze full of meaningful caution. He stopped before his eyes widened, and he shook his head. Tori wanted him to jump off the roof. Ethan liked to think he had grown in the sense of his courage, but he had his fears, just like everyone else. 

The choice was his. 

()()()()()()

This was stupid. All she had wanted was the set of kitchen knives that had sat next the girl. That’s it. She wasn’t a greedy person.

Nevertheless, her desire had led her to a roof, next to a girl in overalls, and a guy in over his head.

The girl in overalls, she had heard the boy call her Tori, turned over to her.

“Hel?” 

Hel? What kind of name was Hel? Too tired to argue, she just shrugged. What did she want anyway?

Tori turned away from her and took a running start towards the ledge. ‘Hel’ ran forward as well, pushing aside ohmygodshesgoingtofallshesgoingtodie and gripped tight onto the concrete lining around the roof. 

Tori was in a squatting position, still seemingly recuperating from the impact her legs had taken, and stood up, with shaking legs, to smile at the other two. 

Hel stopped, she could do that. She adjusted her helmet, and and squatted into a runners’ position. Grinning at the terrified look on Ethans face. She sprinted forward, used her hands as an extra boost, and after a deep breath,

She jumped. 

Freezing air bit at her hands, and any exposed skin. She allowed a smile to take over her features, knowing that no one but her would ever know about it. She saw the other rooftop approaching quickly and, sensing the drop, she tucked her body close into a crouch. 

She landed with a silent thud, her body rolling forward before she landed face up, the thrill of the adrenaline slowly fading as she realized the situation. She almost died!

 

She heard a not-so-silent thud next to her, and turned to see Ethan, his eyes blown wide, crouched in a squat a few metres away from her, any further away and he would have fallen straight past. 

 

They both stood on shaky legs, and turned towards Tori, who already was beginning to run towards the next roof.

This was going to be a long trip.

/\/\/\

They arrived in front of an old hotel, way past its prime. She approached carefully, ignoring the ease both Ethan and Tori seemed to have. Interrupting her thoughts, a loud bark came from behind her, and she turned to be met with what seemed to be at least 50 lbs of fur. 

It was a white and light brown Border Collie. With white (Though bloodshot) eyes, it was staring down at her, with all four paws effectively pinning her to the ground.   
She tried to turn her head, to scream for one of the others, but, the words Help me! Died on her tongue. The helmet stopped her from turning her head, as well as any possibility of her words falling on anything but deaf ears. 

She began to thrash, and felt the dog's teeth against her shin. It didn’t break the skin, just an unpleasant pinch, spanning about four inches wide. 

Abruptly, she felt the weight get lifted up off her, and she flicked her visor up. Ethan had the dog in his arms, the weight appearing to have no strain on him. 

Tori was inspecting the marks on her shins, Hel looked down as well, noticing how there was a crescent shaped tear in her jeans. No blood, though, and that was a plus. 

She sighed, although silent. She would have to change her jeans. The pants were at least some sort of barrier from bug bites or possible infections. However, she knew that she had another pair in her bag that she had taken from a thrift shop on the other side of town, so it wasn’t her first priority. Her priority right now was disinfecting her shoulder.   
She was still upset it had happened, especially at the hands of someone she was now traveling with. But he had mentioned first aid supplies back at his camp. Given the circumstances (she had no first aid supplies), she had decided it would be a waste to not take him up on the offer. 

What she didn’t understand, was why the other girl was going with them. It probably didn’t help, that Hel couldn’t hear them. Her hearing aids were in her bag with her other things. It was easier to take them out when she planned to use her guns, as they usually left an unpleasant ringing in her ears everytime she left them. She hadn’t had time to put them back yet, but she could read lips quite well, so again, not a main concern. 

After recovering from the shock, they began to head into the hotel, the dog trailing behind them, seeming content with following them. She looked over at the elevator, packed full of supplies that were gone before even a few days of the ‘apocalypse’. She would probably take some before she left. After all, she was only here for the supplies.As she stepped into the room she froze, and her eyes narrowed. 

The supplies that were seemingly missing.  
\---

Ethan stood in shock. In two hours, everything he had done since the beginning was...destroyed.

His room had been ransacked, nothing left but ripped couches and torn wallpaper. Suitcases he had filled with supplies were thrown open, nothing left but pamphlets for a store in the next town over. He glanced over them but never fully read them, they were hardly important right now. He had promised sanctuary for the two strangers, one was bleeding out, and the other was completely alone.

He couldn’t help them. 

He had nothing, just like them. He froze, would they think he was lying? Would they kill him just like the infected? Would they leave him, alone with nothing? A sharp poke made him swivel his head, and he came face to face with Hel. The visor was flipped up, so her steely expression was fully visible.

He wouldn’t say it was Deja vu, per se, but seeing a face from ‘before’, a face he knew, gave him whiplash he just wasn’t prepared for. 

Her name was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t remember. He startled, after he heard a sharp click from in front of him. The helmet was taken off, and she was sliding two neon green earpieces into her ears. She turned a dial up that as connected to them, and looked at him again.

“Mind telling me where the first aid is?” 

He couldn’t tell them! He knew logically, there was a small chance that they would actually kill him, but he was too overwhelmed with panic, that logic was not involved in any of his thoughts. 

“Oh! Yeah, I just had to check this pla- I mean, well...It wasn’t my fau-” 

A loud clang from the lobby struck them all out of their conversation. Tori and Ethans eyes met, and they both began to race down the stairs, leaving Hel alone, with blood puddling around her feet. 

Tori and Ethan ran down the stairs, her heart racing faster than she was. If this thing was Tori's chance at survival, she would not hesitate to do whatever she needed to. 

She turned the final corner a few seconds before Ethan, and was met with a face full of smoke. Warnings filled her head, echoing screams of FIREFIREFIRE clouded her mind, and she was yanked back by the neck of her sweater. She turned to see Ethan, who was sweating, with a swipe of soot along the left side of his face. 

In her peripheral, a tall, dark figure raced out of the front doors. Tori wretched herself away from Ethan, and turned to race through the flames. 

With countless years of preparation and situational awareness, she was able to successfully tune out all of the distractions. The pounding in her head, and the pressure behind her eyes slowly subsided, and she braced herself for falling debris, and smoke that could cloud her vision. 

She was dodging falling steel beams, and jumping over piles of burning rubble, racing towards the front doors. 

She felt it before she heard it, the tight pressure along her spine that quickly transforms into blinding, searing pain, rendering her limbs useless, and her attempts at moving the wood futile, and unproductive in her escape. 

She screamed herself hoarse, her goal of catching the thief was overruled by the instinctual urge to survive. 

Out of breath, she panted, opening the mouth as wide as possible, desperate for air. Because of the fire however, smoke cascaded against the back of her throat. 

Her heaving turned to choking, and black was spotted in her vision. She enough first aid, to realize her time was running out. She moved to stand up, but her hands slipped and she fell once again, her body slamming against the burning wood underneath her. She felt something dig into her back, and after looking (and wincing) began to slowly stand. She had roughly two minutes before she fell unconscious, and if the fire kept burning, she wouldn’t wake up. 

Pressure began to build around her temples, and she stood on shaking limbs, hands trembling as she lifted the debris off her blistering back. 

Setting her eyes on the door, although her vision was quickly fading in and out of focus, she slowly dragged her body closer. 

Each fumbling step, each heaved breath, brought her closer to unconsciousness. The only thing that kept her from crumbling, and succumbing to the throbbing of her head, was the same thing that kept everyone going.

Life. 

Every person who was still alive, was only alive because they were fighting for something. Whether it was a spouse, a parent, a sibling, they all had someone. Tori did too. Tori had herself. 

She had gone through the good times and the bad times, by herself. Every attack, every time she fired a round, no one had been there, and Tori didn’t want to start becoming dependent on others now. 

But she was so tired. Maybe if she just stopped for a moment, just to close her eyes….

 

\---  
If she could, would thank her past self for the emo phase. Although it didn’t contribute majorly, flipping down the visor on her helmet had blocked out some of the smoke, making it easier to breathe. 

She quickly turned a corner, heading towards the ground floor to try and make a ‘swift exit’. She had been picking any of the supplies she could find that weren’t burned, and put them in her bag. So far she had collected seven packages of trail mix, one bottle of antiseptic spray, and sudoku puzzle book (Sue her, she gets bored). 

After almost running directly into tall burst of fire, she had resulted to climbing up through the air ducts. Now realistically speaking, there was no outcome where this would work in her favour. Either they would crash, and she would fall directly into the flames below her, or, she would get lost in the ducts, and be trapped in the hotel as it slowly burned to the ground.

In her defense, she had never been great with thinking things through.

Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the loose paneling on the section ahead of her, and placed her knees over the sheet of metal, giving her no time to react before she was sent tumbling into the red and orange blurs spanning across the carpet.

Cursing, while frantically moving to not burn herself, she raced to a small metal bar where the fames hadn’t spread their licking furiosity to yet. She winced as he hand briefly connected with the counter, being metal, it wasn’t on fire, however it was still burning hot. She glance uneasily around the hall, knowing if she couldn’t find anything, her jeans wouldn’t be the only things that were lost that day. 

Swiveling her head back to the corner of the room she’s been watching, she narrowed her eyes. Something wasn’t right. She glanced over everything once more, and catalogued it in her mind.

Cabinet, trolley, sofa, hand, houseplant...

 

Hand?

 

Eyes widening she leaned forwards as much as she could without needing to move her hands to balance her. She had seen those overalls before. 

Had this been any other scenario, ‘Hel’ simply would have been on her way, coming up with some insane scheme that barely makes sense, and escaped the building with nothing but a paperclip and a half empty bottle of window cleaner. 

However, this was no ordinary situation, and she was no ordinary girl. So, skipping the window cleaner, Hel focused on the fire extinguisher and fire axe that were in a glass case, mounted on the wall directly above the girl on the floor.

Sighing, and saying a quick “Da spasi menya Gospod”, She leapt into the fire, and began to crawl towards the axe. 

She tripped over something on her way towards it, maybe seven feet away, and looked up to see blood slowly dripping onto the front of her visor. 

Above her, was a wooden cross, which had fallen from about twenty feet up, if she was correct in assuming it had been supporting the roof. 

The longest end of the cross was maybe half a foot away from the girl, and it was drenched in a dark substance. It took no genius to figure out what exactly it was, but the puddle surrounding it was...impressive, to say the least. 

 

Blood poured out of a wound in the shape of an ‘X’ along her back, The wooden beams were thrown to the ground a few metres away from her, showing that she must have moved them herself. 

Guilt flooded her chest. Could she really just leave this girl to die? 

 

Heaving out a sigh, which she realized after a coughing fit was not the best idea, she leant down to pick up the girl, tucking the fire ax between them so it wouldn’t be dropped. 

Hel wobbled precariously through the rubble and flames around the floor, determined eyes remaining fixed on the set of steel doors at the front of the building. 

Whether she admitted it or not, Hel had a conscience. So she grit her teeth when the flames began to lick up the left leg of her already torn jeans, and she simply narrowed her eyes when chunks of wood and bricks slashed at her arms. 

Approaching the doors, Hel allowed herself to let out a short breath of relief, had she held it any longer and she would’ve given up the small amount of smoke-free air she had left to a coughing fit. 

She took unsteady steps through the parking lot, before carefully placing the girl down on the hood of a abandoned car. Taking a seat beside her, and closing her eyes, Hel finally gave into sleep, and let her vision go dark.


	3. The Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan shows the two girls where he's been staying, only to find the place in shambles. He feels like he's going to cry. 
> 
> This sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any typos!

He lunged forward and gripped Tori by the arm, before turning and reaching for Hel’s hand as well. She hesitated before seeing the worried look in his eyes. She acquiesced her hand to his grip, and limped along with them.

He sprinted through the bushes which had been rustling a few moments earlier, and emerged in a run-down parking lot behind a restaurant named Pizza Palace. He rolled his eyes at the glow-up chef next to the sign, throwing up a neon pizza. 

They raced through an apartment complex until they reached the roof. Tori had taken the lead a few minutes ago, she apparently knew the layout well, and had led them to the ledge. She looked at him, a gaze full of meaningful caution. He stopped before his eyes widened, and he shook his head. Tori wanted him to jump off the roof. Ethan liked to think he had grown in the sense of his courage, but he had his fears, just like everyone else. 

The choice was his. 

()()()()()()

This was stupid. All she had wanted was the set of kitchen knives that had sat next the girl. That’s it. She wasn’t a greedy person.

Nevertheless, her desire had led her to a roof, next to a girl in overalls, and a guy in over his head.

The girl in overalls, she had heard the boy call her Tori, turned over to her.

“Hel?” 

Hel? What kind of name was Hel? Too tired to argue, she just shrugged. What did she want anyway?

Tori turned away from her and took a running start towards the ledge. ‘Hel’ ran forward as well, pushing aside ohmygodshesgoingtofallshesgoingtodie and gripped tight onto the concrete lining around the roof. 

Tori was in a squatting position, still seemingly recuperating from the impact her legs had taken, and stood up, with shaking legs, to smile at the other two. 

Hel stopped, she could do that. She adjusted her helmet, and and squatted into a runners’ position. Grinning at the terrified look on Ethans face. She sprinted forward, used her hands as an extra boost, and after a deep breath,

She jumped. 

Freezing air bit at her hands, and any exposed skin. She allowed a smile to take over her features, knowing that no one but her would ever know about it. She saw the other rooftop approaching quickly and, sensing the drop, she tucked her body close into a crouch. 

She landed with a silent thud, her body rolling forward before she landed face up, the thrill of the adrenaline slowly fading as she realized the situation. She almost died!

 

She heard a not-so-silent thud next to her, and turned to see Ethan, his eyes blown wide, crouched in a squat a few metres away from her, any further away and he would have fallen straight past. 

 

They both stood on shaky legs, and turned towards Tori, who already was beginning to run towards the next roof.

This was going to be a long trip.

/\/\/\

They arrived in front of an old hotel, way past its prime. She approached carefully, ignoring the ease both Ethan and Tori seemed to have. Interrupting her thoughts, a loud bark came from behind her, and she turned to be met with what seemed to be at least 50 lbs of fur. 

It was a white and light brown Border Collie. With white (Though bloodshot) eyes, it was staring down at her, with all four paws effectively pinning her to the ground.   
She tried to turn her head, to scream for one of the others, but, the words Help me! Died on her tongue. The helmet stopped her from turning her head, as well as any possibility of her words falling on anything but deaf ears. 

She began to thrash, and felt the dog's teeth against her shin. It didn’t break the skin, just an unpleasant pinch, spanning about four inches wide. 

Abruptly, she felt the weight get lifted up off her, and she flicked her visor up. Ethan had the dog in his arms, the weight appearing to have no strain on him. 

Tori was inspecting the marks on her shins, Hel looked down as well, noticing how there was a crescent shaped tear in her jeans. No blood, though, and that was a plus. 

She sighed, although silent. She would have to change her jeans. The pants were at least some sort of barrier from bug bites or possible infections. However, she knew that she had another pair in her bag that she had taken from a thrift shop on the other side of town, so it wasn’t her first priority. Her priority right now was disinfecting her shoulder.   
She was still upset it had happened, especially at the hands of someone she was now traveling with. But he had mentioned first aid supplies back at his camp. Given the circumstances (she had no first aid supplies), she had decided it would be a waste to not take him up on the offer. 

What she didn’t understand, was why the other girl was going with them. It probably didn’t help, that Hel couldn’t hear them. Her hearing aids were in her bag with her other things. It was easier to take them out when she planned to use her guns, as they usually left an unpleasant ringing in her ears everytime she left them. She hadn’t had time to put them back yet, but she could read lips quite well, so again, not a main concern. 

After recovering from the shock, they began to head into the hotel, the dog trailing behind them, seeming content with following them. She looked over at the elevator, packed full of supplies that were gone before even a few days of the ‘apocalypse’. She would probably take some before she left. After all, she was only here for the supplies.As she stepped into the room she froze, and her eyes narrowed. 

The supplies that were seemingly missing.  
\---

Ethan stood in shock. In two hours, everything he had done since the beginning was...destroyed.

His room had been ransacked, nothing left but ripped couches and torn wallpaper. Suitcases he had filled with supplies were thrown open, nothing left but pamphlets for a store in the next town over. He glanced over them but never fully read them, they were hardly important right now. He had promised sanctuary for the two strangers, one was bleeding out, and the other was completely alone.

He couldn’t help them. 

He had nothing, just like them. He froze, would they think he was lying? Would they kill him just like the infected? Would they leave him, alone with nothing? A sharp poke made him swivel his head, and he came face to face with Hel. The visor was flipped up, so her steely expression was fully visible.

He wouldn’t say it was Deja vu, per se, but seeing a face from ‘before’, a face he knew, gave him whiplash he just wasn’t prepared for. 

Her name was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t remember. He startled, after he heard a sharp click from in front of him. The helmet was taken off, and she was sliding two neon green earpieces into her ears. She turned a dial up that as connected to them, and looked at him again.

“Mind telling me where the first aid is?” 

He couldn’t tell them! He knew logically, there was a small chance that they would actually kill him, but he was too overwhelmed with panic, that logic was not involved in any of his thoughts. 

“Oh! Yeah, I just had to check this pla- I mean, well...It wasn’t my fau-” 

A loud clang from the lobby struck them all out of their conversation. Tori and Ethans eyes met, and they both began to race down the stairs, leaving Hel alone, with blood puddling around her feet. 

Tori and Ethan ran down the stairs, her heart racing faster than she was. If this thing was Tori's chance at survival, she would not hesitate to do whatever she needed to. 

She turned the final corner a few seconds before Ethan, and was met with a face full of smoke. Warnings filled her head, echoing screams of FIREFIREFIRE clouded her mind, and she was yanked back by the neck of her sweater. She turned to see Ethan, who was sweating, with a swipe of soot along the left side of his face. 

In her peripheral, a tall, dark figure raced out of the front doors. Tori wretched herself away from Ethan, and turned to race through the flames. 

With countless years of preparation and situational awareness, she was able to successfully tune out all of the distractions. The pounding in her head, and the pressure behind her eyes slowly subsided, and she braced herself for falling debris, and smoke that could cloud her vision. 

She was dodging falling steel beams, and jumping over piles of burning rubble, racing towards the front doors. 

She felt it before she heard it, the tight pressure along her spine that quickly transforms into blinding, searing pain, rendering her limbs useless, and her attempts at moving the wood futile, and unproductive in her escape. 

She screamed herself hoarse, her goal of catching the thief was overruled by the instinctual urge to survive. 

Out of breath, she panted, opening the mouth as wide as possible, desperate for air. Because of the fire however, smoke cascaded against the back of her throat. 

Her heaving turned to choking, and black was spotted in her vision. She enough first aid, to realize her time was running out. She moved to stand up, but her hands slipped and she fell once again, her body slamming against the burning wood underneath her. She felt something dig into her back, and after looking (and wincing) began to slowly stand. She had roughly two minutes before she fell unconscious, and if the fire kept burning, she wouldn’t wake up. 

Pressure began to build around her temples, and she stood on shaking limbs, hands trembling as she lifted the debris off her blistering back. 

Setting her eyes on the door, although her vision was quickly fading in and out of focus, she slowly dragged her body closer. 

Each fumbling step, each heaved breath, brought her closer to unconsciousness. The only thing that kept her from crumbling, and succumbing to the throbbing of her head, was the same thing that kept everyone going.

Life. 

Every person who was still alive, was only alive because they were fighting for something. Whether it was a spouse, a parent, a sibling, they all had someone. Tori did too. Tori had herself. 

She had gone through the good times and the bad times, by herself. Every attack, every time she fired a round, no one had been there, and Tori didn’t want to start becoming dependent on others now. 

But she was so tired. Maybe if she just stopped for a moment, just to close her eyes….

 

\---  
If she could, would thank her past self for the emo phase. Although it didn’t contribute majorly, flipping down the visor on her helmet had blocked out some of the smoke, making it easier to breathe. 

She quickly turned a corner, heading towards the ground floor to try and make a ‘swift exit’. She had been picking any of the supplies she could find that weren’t burned, and put them in her bag. So far she had collected seven packages of trail mix, one bottle of antiseptic spray, and sudoku puzzle book (Sue her, she gets bored). 

After almost running directly into tall burst of fire, she had resulted to climbing up through the air ducts. Now realistically speaking, there was no outcome where this would work in her favour. Either they would crash, and she would fall directly into the flames below her, or, she would get lost in the ducts, and be trapped in the hotel as it slowly burned to the ground.

In her defense, she had never been great with thinking things through.

Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the loose paneling on the section ahead of her, and placed her knees over the sheet of metal, giving her no time to react before she was sent tumbling into the red and orange blurs spanning across the carpet.

Cursing, while frantically moving to not burn herself, she raced to a small metal bar where the fames hadn’t spread their licking furiosity to yet. She winced as he hand briefly connected with the counter, being metal, it wasn’t on fire, however it was still burning hot. She glance uneasily around the hall, knowing if she couldn’t find anything, her jeans wouldn’t be the only things that were lost that day. 

Swiveling her head back to the corner of the room she’s been watching, she narrowed her eyes. Something wasn’t right. She glanced over everything once more, and catalogued it in her mind.

Cabinet, trolley, sofa, hand, houseplant...

 

Hand?

 

Eyes widening she leaned forwards as much as she could without needing to move her hands to balance her. She had seen those overalls before. 

Had this been any other scenario, ‘Hel’ simply would have been on her way, coming up with some insane scheme that barely makes sense, and escaped the building with nothing but a paperclip and a half empty bottle of window cleaner. 

However, this was no ordinary situation, and she was no ordinary girl. So, skipping the window cleaner, Hel focused on the fire extinguisher and fire axe that were in a glass case, mounted on the wall directly above the girl on the floor.

Sighing, and saying a quick “Da spasi menya Gospod”, She leapt into the fire, and began to crawl towards the axe. 

She tripped over something on her way towards it, maybe seven feet away, and looked up to see blood slowly dripping onto the front of her visor. 

Above her, was a wooden cross, which had fallen from about twenty feet up, if she was correct in assuming it had been supporting the roof. 

The longest end of the cross was maybe half a foot away from the girl, and it was drenched in a dark substance. It took no genius to figure out what exactly it was, but the puddle surrounding it was...impressive, to say the least. 

 

Blood poured out of a wound in the shape of an ‘X’ along her back, The wooden beams were thrown to the ground a few metres away from her, showing that she must have moved them herself. 

Guilt flooded her chest. Could she really just leave this girl to die? 

 

Heaving out a sigh, which she realized after a coughing fit was not the best idea, she leant down to pick up the girl, tucking the fire ax between them so it wouldn’t be dropped. 

Hel wobbled precariously through the rubble and flames around the floor, determined eyes remaining fixed on the set of steel doors at the front of the building. 

Whether she admitted it or not, Hel had a conscience. So she grit her teeth when the flames began to lick up the left leg of her already torn jeans, and she simply narrowed her eyes when chunks of wood and bricks slashed at her arms. 

Approaching the doors, Hel allowed herself to let out a short breath of relief, had she held it any longer and she would’ve given up the small amount of smoke-free air she had left to a coughing fit. 

She took unsteady steps through the parking lot, before carefully placing the girl down on the hood of a abandoned car. Taking a seat beside her, and closing her eyes, Hel finally gave into sleep, and let her vision go dark.


End file.
